Nile Delta

North of Cairo the Nile splits into two branches, the Rosetta branch to the west and the Damietta branch to the east, opening a broad triangle of irrigated land that runs all the way to the Mediterranean. This is the Delta, the Lower Egypt of the ancients. Egypt's tourist board sells it on its people and its fields: here you see everyday Egypt, mud-brick villages, water buffalo wading along the canals, and plenty of birds. Few travellers come, which is precisely the appeal.

The Delta is mostly visited on day trips from Alexandria or Cairo, and three outings stand out: Rosetta and its Ottoman houses in the west; Tanis and Bubastis, the great cities of the northern pharaohs, in the east; and the fishermen of Lake Burullus on the coast. They suit travellers who already know Cairo and Luxor, and anyone who enjoys history.

Rosetta, the town of the Stone

Rosetta, Rashid in Arabic, is a port on the western branch of the Nile, about 65 km east of Alexandria. After the Ottoman conquest of 1517 it prospered at Alexandria's expense and remained a major trading centre until the Mahmoudiya Canal opened in 1820 and gave Alexandria its role back. That wealth left merchants' houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, mosques and the old souk.

• Amasyali House is the largest Ottoman house still standing in Rosetta: three floors of rooms, sharing a complex with the Hasiba Ghazal House and a granary. The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE, an American archaeology and conservation body) has run a project here to save the roof and second floor.
• Zaghloul Mosque, built in 1587, is the oldest and largest in town: 90 m by 48 m, with 99 marble columns. In 1807 the call from its minaret gave the signal for the attack that drove back General Fraser's British expedition.
• Rashid National Museum occupies the house of Arab Killi, the town's governor in Ottoman times. Opened as a military museum in 1959 and redesigned in 1986, it tells the story of Rosetta's resistance to the French and then the British, and shows a copy of the Rosetta Stone. It has been closed for works in recent years, so Sabaro checks that it is open before every visit.
• Qaitbay Fort, north of the town, was renewed by the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay in 1479. Bonaparte's soldiers, who called it Fort Julien, found the Stone there in 1799 while strengthening its defences.

The Rosetta Stone itself passed to the British with the French surrender of 1801 and is in the British Museum in London. It was the key that let Jean-François Champollion decipher hieroglyphs in 1822.

Tanis, city of the northern pharaohs

Tanis, today San el-Hagar, lies in Sharqia governorate in the north-east of the Delta, about two hours' drive from Cairo. Around 1069 BC, at the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt split in two: the kings of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties ruled Lower Egypt from this new capital, while the high priests of Amun held Thebes, today's Luxor. They built a "Thebes of the North" here, with a great temple of Amun and temples of Mut and Khonsu, as at Karnak.

The temples, mostly limestone, were pulled apart in late antiquity and the stone burnt for lime. What survives is the granite and quartzite, and it is striking: fallen obelisks, colossi of Ramesses II, palm-shaped columns and carved blocks scattered across a city of more than 200 hectares. Many bear inscriptions older than Tanis itself, because its kings quarried their stone from Pi-Ramesses, the old residence of the Ramesside kings some twenty kilometres away. The Arabic name, San el-Hagar, means "Tanis of the Stones".

The royal necropolis is the highlight. The French archaeologist Pierre Montet uncovered it between 1939 and 1946 inside the enclosure of the temple of Amun. The tomb of Psusennes I yielded the intact burials of the king and of his successor Amenemope: the only Egyptian royal tombs found intact after Tutankhamun's. The main tombs are those of Psusennes I; of Osorkon II, whose huge sarcophagus is still in its granite chamber; and of Shoshenq III, whose burial chamber is decorated with passages from the Book of the Netherworld. Other stone sarcophagi are displayed near the site entrance. The treasures, gold masks, jewellery and silver vessels, are in the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square in Cairo: seeing them before Tanis gives the visit its full meaning. The French Mission for the Excavations of Tanis has worked on the site since 1965.

Bubastis, city of the cat goddess

Bubastis, Tell Basta, sits on the edge of Zagazig, in the same Sharqia governorate as Tanis. It was the city of Bastet, the cat-headed goddess, and a royal residence of the 22nd Dynasty. The Greek historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, called its festival the most joyful in the Egyptian calendar and described its temple ringed by canals and tree-lined avenues. Today you see the ruins of the temple of Bastet; the cemeteries of Bubastis were Egypt's main burial place for mummified cats. A German-Egyptian team has excavated here since 2008.

Tanis and Bubastis go together in a day of about eight hours from Cairo, with a driver and a guide.

Tanta and the mawlid of Sayyid al-Badawi

Tanta, capital of Gharbia governorate, is 94 km north of Cairo on the Cairo–Alexandria railway. Its station, opened in 1856, is the largest in the Delta. The town is known for the mosque of Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi, named after a 13th-century Sufi master (Sufism is the mystical path of Islam). The present building dates from the 18th century, and its latest renovation was completed in 2024.

Every October the mawlid of Sayyid al-Badawi, the saint's festival, lasts a week and draws an estimated one to three million pilgrims. The streets fill with stalls selling sugar cane, rice pudding and koshari, the popular dish of lentils, rice and pasta. The rest of the year Tanta is known for its roasted chickpeas and its peanut, coconut, sesame and chickpea sweets, made in front of passers-by. The mawlid is a very crowded popular festival, best seen by day with a guide.

Lake Burullus

East of Rosetta, Lake Burullus is a lagoon bordered to the north by the Mediterranean, in Kafr el-Sheikh governorate. Egypt's tourist board describes it as the country's second-largest natural lake. Since 1988 it has been listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention (the international treaty protecting wetlands), over 46,200 hectares, and Egypt's Environmental Affairs Agency counts 112 bird species here. The tourist board suggests a boat trip out to its islands, more than twenty of them, and a stop at the old fishing village of al-Maqsaba on the shore.

When to go

October to April. In winter, average highs stay around 18 to 21 °C in Alexandria, the nearest reference station, and the open-air sites of Tanis and Bubastis are comfortable. In summer it passes 30 °C on the coast and more inland, so set off early. October adds the Tanta mawlid.

Getting there and where to stay

Egypt is a few hours' flight from Europe's main cities, direct or with one stop. The Delta has no hotel in the Sabaro selection: stay in Alexandria for Rosetta and Lake Burullus, and in Cairo for Tanis, Bubastis and Tanta.

• Rosetta: about an hour by road from Alexandria; the visit takes half a day, about five hours there and back.
• Tanis and Bubastis: about two hours by road from Cairo to Tanis; a full day.
• Tanta: by the Cairo–Alexandria train or by road; it fits into a journey between the two cities, like Wadi Natrun and its Coptic monasteries.

The guide to getting around Egypt covers trains and roads.

Safety

The Delta lies outside the areas that foreign ministries advise against. The country's general rules apply: care at crowded sites and festivals, and no road travel at night outside towns. Ministries do not all give the same advice. Here is yours:

The guide to safety in Egypt covers precautions on the ground. For more ideas, see the museums and culture theme.